Prediction of the vapor-liquid equilibria and speed of sound in binary systems of 1-alkanols and n-alkanes with the simplified PC-SAFT equation of state

Prediction of speed of sound is a challenging task for any equation of state because it needs the first- and second-order derivatives of the Helmholtz free energy with respect to both temperature and volume. Equally challenging is the simultaneous predictions of phase behavior and speed of sound (or other derivative properties) with satisfactory accuracy over wide temperature, pressure and composition conditions. This work presents the prediction of the vapor-liquid equilibria and speed of sound in binary mixtures of 1-alkanols and n-alkanes using the simplified PC-SAFT equation of state with pure component parameters estimated in different ways. All results are straight predictions, i.e. no binary interaction parameters are used. With the parameters presented in this work, the predicted overall percent average absolute deviations are, respectively, around 6.1% for the saturation pressure for 1533 experimental data points in the temperature range from 273 to 493 K, and 1.7% for the speed of sound for 2490 experimental data points at temperature between 293 and 318 K and pressure up to 120 MPa. The results reveal that it is possible to simultaneously model the vapor-liquid equilibria and speed of sound with a satisfactory accuracy for 1-alkanols and n-alkanes binary systems within the PC-SAFT framework. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.